New Accusations Erupt Over the Dead Sea Scrolls

More name-calling controversy has erupted among scholars of the Dead Sea Scrolls, deepening distrust and threatening to disrupt an international conference scheduled to begin tomorrow at the New York Academy of Sciences.

A group of scrolls experts is asserting that the authors of a new book translating 50 of the ancient documents borrowed heavily and without acknowledgement from the research of others. They condemned that as the "unethical appropriation" of previous transcriptions and translations, and said the authors' claims of having done independent and original work were "laughable and manifestly dishonest."

The two authors of the book deny the accusations, saying they worked with photographs of the original texts and did not depend on any one else's work. One of them, Dr. Robert H. Eisenman of California State University at Long Beach, accused the critics of "scholarly peevishness and jealousy."

Dr. Eisenman suggested that this was one more attempt by establishment scholars to control the analysis and publication of the scrolls, ancient documents discovered in caves near the Dead Sea, beginning in 1947, and believed to contain important insights into early Judaism and the origins of Christianity. Until a year ago, a team of a few editors exercised tight control over access to the hundreds of texts and were accused of refusing to let anyone other than their own students and favored colleagues work with the material. Accusations Circulated

The book in question is "The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered: The First Complete Translation and Interpretation of 50 Key Documents Withheld for Over 35 Years," published last month by Element Books. Dr. Eisenman's co-author is Dr. Michael Wise, an assistant professor of Near Eastern languages at the University of Chicago.

In a talk last month at a meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in San Francisco, Dr. Lawrence H. Schiffman, a professor of Hebrew and Judaic studies at New York University, said: "This volume represents the fulfillment of the worst predictions of those who opposed the opening of the scrolls to the general scholarly community. It does not, as it claims, publish 50 unpublished texts. One half of those texts published here were fully published before the volume came out."

Last week, Dr. Schiffman and 18 other scholars signed and distributed a statement elaborating those assertions. Among the signers are Dr. Emanuel Tov, editor in chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls Publication Project in Israel; Dr. Eugene Ulrich and Dr. James VanderKam , both of the University of Notre Dame; Dr. Frank Moore Cross of Harvard University, and Dr. Elisha Qimron of the University of the Negev in Beersheba, Israel, who is currently a visiting scholar at the Annenberg Research Institute in Philadelphia.

Although several of the signers had been members of the previous editorial team that exerted such firm control, others, including Dr. Schiffman, had supported opening the scrolls to other researchers. They emphasized that their complaints did not "stem from a desire to maintain a monopoly or to forestall the publication of texts by others." 'Utterly Unacceptable' Practice

The accusations outlined in the statement are certain to be debated here tomorrow at the opening session of a three-day conference on scroll research, organized by the New York Academy of Sciences and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. A hastily arranged symposium on publication ethics has been added to the program for tomorrow afternoon.

In their statement, the critics of the book asserted that in "several easily identifiable cases," the authors depended on "handouts and work in progress" reported at previous conferences and failed to give proper credit. That practice, they said, is "utterly unacceptable" because "all scholars have a right to see their work appear in print for the first time under their own names."

In all, the critics said, "only about one-fourth of the material is entirely new."

Singled out for criticism was the book's handling of the text of what has become known as the MMT document, considered one of the most important manuscripts from the Dead Sea caves. It is a fragmentary work representing legal views of a separatist Jewish group. Many scholars think the document holds clues to the identity of the Jewish sect responsible for the scrolls. 'Straight and Honest' Research

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The critics noted the striking similarities in the reconstruction of the MMT text by the authors with the work of Dr. Qimron and John Strugnell, a Harvard scholar and former editor in chief of the project. Those two scholars have been working on those particular documents for a dozen years. Although the results have yet to be published officially, bootlegged photographs of the work have been passed among researchers for years.

"It must be a miracle that their edition made all the same joins and transitions between fragmentary manuscripts that Strugnell and Qimron had made," the critics said in their statement, referring to Dr. Eisenman and Dr. Wise.

Dr. Wise, who headed the research team responsible for most of the translations, said the text was reconstructed from photographs of the manuscript that Dr. Eisenman had obtained earlier, and not from any documents prepared by Dr. Qimron. He noted, moreover, that his research yielded an entirely new section of more than 160 lines that have not been included in any other translations. That would more than double the length of the MMT text.

Dr. Norman Golb, professor of Near Eastern languages and civilization at the University of Chicago, said the accusations against the book's authors "are fundamentally untrue." He said he was especially familiar with Dr. Wise's research techniques, saying, "He's an absolutely straight and honest person." Lawsuit and Procrastination

This is not the first controversy set off by the MMT text. In January, Dr. Qimron brought a lawsuit against the Biblical Archeology Society because its facsimile edition of scrolls photographs included in an appendix the Hebrew text of MMT as prepared by Dr. Qimron. The defendants in the case, scheduled for trial Feb. 1 in Jerusalem, include Hershel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archeology Review, and Dr. James M. Robinson of Claremont Graduate School and Dr. Eisenman, who were editors of the volume.

"That lawsuit is the crux of all this fuss," Dr. Eisenman said.

Several scholars said much of the controversy is also the consequence of earlier procrastination in making available the texts to the wider community of biblical scholars. Publication delays and excessive secrecy by the controlling editors embittered other scholars and even raised speculation, repeatedly denied, that the editors were suppressing documents that would upset Jews or Christians, or both.

At a meeting in Kansas City a year ago, the Society of Biblical Literature recommended that "those who own or control ancient written materials should allow all scholars to have access to them." Microfilm Archives

It was also recommended that they should not "hinder other scholars from publishing their own studies, translations, or editions of the written materials."

Dr. Wise said that he and Dr. Eisenman considered that a professional endorsement of the kind of book they have produced. The society had enunciated those guidelines specifically to deal with the expected surge of scrolls publications following the opening of the scrolls a year ago to all scholars.

The breakthrough came when the Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif., announced that it had microfilm archives of all the scrolls, over which the international team of editors had no control, and that it was opening the material to any qualified scholar.

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A version of this article appears in print on December 13, 1992, on Page 1001028 of the National edition with the headline: New Accusations Erupt Over the Dead Sea Scrolls. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe